Uchiwakamru is Minamoto no Yoshitsune‘s childhood name, who is one of the coolest, the most beloved in japanese history and a menacing looking dude facing down him isBenkei who’s no less endearing than soon-to-be his lifetime master, said Yoshitsune.

This painting depicts their well-known encounter where a pale-skinned wee small Yoshitsune boy (take into consideration the average height of jap males in that time was around 140-150 cm) eventually defeated extra-hulky Benkei (from wikipedia; At the age of seventeen, Benkei was said to have been over two metres or – 6.6 feet – tall) and made him his lifetime loyal underling. so, in a size sense, it was basically a fight between a child and an unsually huge grown-up man and the child beat the shit out of the grown-up. believe it or not, but it’s just a tiny bit of stories telling the uncanny strength of Yoshisune; “a Monk (but, as you notice in the picture, not an orthodox one) Benkei is said to have posted himself at Gōjō Bridge in Kyoto, where he deprived every passing swordsman of his weapon, eventually collecting 999 swords. On his 1000th duel, Benkei was defeated by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a son of the warlordMinamoto no Yoshitomo.”

taking after his mother Dokiwa Gozen, the much buzzed-about beauty of that era, Yoshisune also boasted pretty features. awkward timing to cut off key tapping yet i guess you had it enough to savor the main dish and it doesn’t really cater to my snobby self to babble about stuff i barely know. my blog will focus on visuals more than words but my kindness always seems to speak louder than it should. it’s not a bad thing, is it?